The Atlanta Braves hit three home runs to back the solid starting pitching of Charlie Morton and beat the Miami Marlins 4-2 on Thursday in the opener of a four-game series.
Their fifth win their last six games overall, and sixth in seven against the Marlins this season, pulled the Braves to within six games of idle Philadelphia in the National League East.
Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Orlando Arcia all went deep in the first three innings as Atlanta scored all of its runs.
Morton (6-6) pitched six innings and allowed one unearned run on five hits, two walks and one hit batter. He struck out six — five in the first two innings. Morton allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in five of six innings but benefited from a pair of double plays.
Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to record his 23rd save.
Miami’s Max Meyer (2-1) took the loss. In five innings, he allowed four runs on seven hits — including all three home runs — and one walk. He fanned seven. Meyer beat the Braves in April.
The Braves powered their way to three runs in the first inning. Riley hit an opposite-field solo shot to right field, his 15th homer of the season. Marcell Ozuna followed with a single, and Olson swatted his 18th homer deep into the right field seats. Olson has hit three homers in the last two days and five in his last six games.
Atlanta added another run in the third inning on a solo homer from Arcia, a 408-footer than landed deep in the left field bleachers. The home run also extended Arcia’s hitting streak to a career-best 12 games.
Miami cut the lead to 4-1 in the fifth. Forrest Wall singled and went all the way to third when Morton’s pickoff throw eluded Olson and rolled into the outfield. Wall scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Nick Fortes.
The Marlins added a run in the seventh on a pair of walks from reliever Dylan Lee and an RBI single by Jake Burger off Luke Jackson.